Crow Wing County Public Health is advising residents to be aware of contact tracing phone scams.

The process of identifying people who have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, is known as “Contact Tracing” and is being exploited by criminals in their scam campaigns.

Officials are warning the public of scammers attempting to steal information from people by pretending to be Contact Tracers. The scam campaigns involved phone calls from scammers claiming to be Contact Tracers, and spam text and email messages asking people to click on links which takes them to malicious sites or downloads malicious software onto devices.

Officials say if a legitimate Contact Tracer does contact you anywhere across Minnesota, they will not ask you for information like your social security number, bank account or credit card number. In addition, if you do get such a phone call you are being asked to hang up and contact authorities.